「Yah! Ha!」
「Yeah, looking good」
I swung my beloved sword, ‘Gram’, down at Father. First from the upper stance, then from the middle, but of course he blocked them with ease.
「Here I come, Alec」
This time it was Father’s counterattack. He swung his wooden sword down at me, holding back enough that I could manage. I met it head-on with Gram and blocked firmly.
「Grrr!」
I pushed his wooden sword back and lifted Gram once more from the upper stance,
「Tei!」
「Mm」
「Tei! Tei! Tei!!」
「Y-yeah…」
「Tei!! Tei, 」
「Alright, wait a second. Let’s calm down for a bit」
As I kept hammering down upper stance strikes with Gram again and again, Father suddenly called for a pause.
I lowered my sword, caught my breath, and asked him.
「What’s wrong?」
「It feels like whenever you say ‘Tei,’ you lose sight of everything around you」
「When I say ‘Tei’…」
That… might be true. I do get carried away sometimes. Maybe this is what being trigger-happy feels like.
「And lately, even when you’re not saying ‘Tei’, you seem to lack composure with your sword」
「I do?」
Honestly, I don’t know. What does it even mean to ‘lack composure with a sword’?
Did I used to ‘have’ composure then? Sword-saint terminology is still too advanced for me…
――Still, Father might be right that I’ve been losing my focus.
「Let’s stop here for today. It’s almost time for breakfast anyway」
「Yes. Thank you very much」
「Good work. Alec, you’re always unusually polite with your greetings at the start and end of training」
Well, they say ‘begin with courtesy, end with courtesy’. …Though maybe that’s not really a thing in this world.
◇
Name: Alexis
Race: Elf Age: 9 (↑1) Gender: Male
Occupation: Woodworking Apprentice
Level: 9 (↑1)
Strength: 5
Magic: 3
Vitality: 6 (↑1)
Dexterity: 14 (↑2)
Agility: 2
Skills
Bow Lv1 Fire Magic Lv1 Woodworking Lv1
Skill Arts
Paralyze Arrow (Bow Lv1)(New) Varnish Coating (Woodworking Lv1)
Title
Son of the Sword Saint and the Sage
◇
After breakfast, I returned to my room and looked over the sheet where I’d written down my latest status.
…Not that I really ‘need’ to. I already remember my current status perfectly, and the paper just repeats what’s in my memory.
No matter how many times I check, a simple memo isn’t going to change.
And yet, lately I’ve been spending more and more time just staring at it.
「Level 9…」
It’s not like my memory’s wrong and I’m secretly Level 10. No, it’s definitely 9.
Level 9. That’s the reason I feel no composure, the reason I keep going through this meaningless routine of checking again and again.
I turned nine years old while still stuck at Level 9.
There’s only one year left until my tenth birthday, only one year until my ‘First Hunt’.
Within this year, I need to raise my level to 10, spin the Cheat Roulette, and obtain a cheat skill. This is the year I have to train, to prepare for the battle to come.
Back when I still felt some leeway, I even joked to myself, 『It’s like I’m a warrior preparing for the Saiy◯n invasion』.
But as the months slipped by, one month, two months, until there were less than two left, panic began to creep in.
That was when my trips to the church to check my status went from every other week to once a week.
When the final month began, my unease grew worse. My church visits increased to once every three days.
And now. With only one week left until my tenth birthday.
My ‘First Hunt’ is waiting a week from now. I’m going to the church once every two days, but my level still refuses to budge from 9.
「Well, technically, I don’t even ‘need’ to go to the church…」
If the process is the same as with the Level 5 roulette, then the very night I hit Level 10, I’ll automatically be transferred to that conference room.
In other words, I don’t actually need to keep track of my level myself.
…But the gnawing anxiety won’t let me rest. To ease it, I keep going back to the church. Right now, I’m holding myself back to every other day, but honestly, I want to go every single day, heck, every few hours if I could.
Of course, I don’t have the money for that. Even at once every two days, Laudette-san already seems pretty baffled by me.
So, instead, I settle for staring at the paper where I copied my appraisal results,
「When I think about it though, staring at this memo doesn’t make sense either… I really am getting cornered here…」
At the very least, instead of brooding over this piece of paper, I should be doing something to gain experience.
I already trained with the sword this morning, so maybe woodworking or archery practice?
「…Alright. Let’s go practice archery」
「Heading to the training grounds?」
「Hiii!?」
When I came to my senses, Ralina-chan was already sitting quietly in the corner of my room…
Again. It’s happening again…
Why does Ralina-chan always enter my room without permission? And why do I never notice until she’s already inside? …Could it be she actually has some kind of stealth skill?
「H-hi, good afternoon, Ralina-chan」
「Good afternoon, onii-chan」
「I didn’t notice you were here, sorry」
「It’s fine, onii-chan」
I really wanted to protest a little about her coming in without permission, but I held back.
Lately, maybe because I’ve been visiting the church far too often, Ralina-chan has been more irritable than usual. To be honest, she’s been kind of scary, so I don’t dare push too hard.
「By the way… um, how long have you been here?」
I had to at least ask that much.
「Hmm, maybe just before onii-chan picked up that paper?」
「…I see」
Strange… that’s strange. I came back from breakfast and immediately picked up my status sheet. Which means Ralina-chan was already in the room ‘before’ I entered.
――Wait, she was in here ‘before me’?
「…………」
「Onii-chan?」
「N-no, it’s nothing」
I was too creeped out to ask for details…
「So, onii-chan, are you going to the training grounds?」
「Ah, yeah. That’s the plan. Want to come too, Ralina-chan? You can do something else instead if you’d rather play」
Like… pretend play, for example. Apparently it gives a lot of experience, that pretend play,
「I’ll go to the training grounds too」
「I see… Do you need to get anything ready?」
「Nope, I can go right away」
「Then let’s go」
「Yeah」
So, no pretend play. Well, of course not, we haven’t done that in years. Honestly, if Ralina-chan suddenly suggested it now, I think I’d be more scared than happy.
If we ever really do it again, I’d probably have to be the one to bring it up…
But, with me nearly ten years old already, what would Ralina-chan think of me if I asked? Would she still call me ‘onii-chan’?
Or would she say something like, 『Ehh, seriously, pretend play!? That’s so gross. Only elementary school kids still play house, you know』…?
…Well, if it really ‘is’ still allowed in elementary school, then technically I still qualify.
Next chapter: Pretend Play
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